A Dream of Armageddon
by HobTheRobot
Summary: As a living example of the horror Doctor Mercer's work could bring about, Alex races to destroy what remains of his father's creations. His own mistakes stalk his path, his enemies bring ever greater weapons against him. To some he is a monster, to others he is a god. To one he is but a child who must be taught what is right and brought back to the family.
1. Prologue

**Behold, the very beginning of one of my two new attempts at writing full stories. I cannot guarantee that this will update _fast_ but I am already a decent way into it so it shouldn't be too terrible a wait.**

* * *

**A Dream of Armageddon**

* * *

**Prologue**

My name is Alex Mercer. I am a killer, a monster, and a terrorist.

After Manhattan, I thought I was almost done. I thought I could end it all before Blackwatch and the rest recovered. They didn't know I was alive, so they wouldn't be expecting me, after all.

But I had to look after my own, first.

I took Dana, and Ragland, and ran, making sure we never stopped most of the time. I might have been believed destroyed when the bomb detonated, but that didn't mean it was safe.

Blackwatch was searching high and low in every nook and cranny for signs of the virus in the Northeast.

We made it to a town called Smithfield in Virginia before splitting up. I did everything I could to help Ragland disappear, give him a chance at a new life. I owed him that much. If he hadn't taken care of Dana, she probably wouldn't have survived long enough for me to work out how to reverse some of the damage Greene did.

To be honest, I was happy to see Ragland go. He'd helped me a lot, sure, but I can't say I really cared about him. Certainly not enough to justify protecting him the way I did Dana.

It only took two months for Dana to recover almost completely, though I couldn't undo everything without killing her. During that time, when Dana was asleep or just didn't need me hovering around her, I did what I could to prepare for what lay over the horizon.

You see, New York had plenty of criminals. Some were of the more obvious sort and others were the more subtle types. Regardless, I had most of their financial data. By the time I got done transferring money around, making sure it would be years before it could be traced, if ever, I had private accounts with millions of dollars in them to draw from.

I don't need money, of course. I don't eat or sleep or drink. I don't need a roof over my head or clothes or anything else that people generally spend money on.

Dana would though, and I had to take care of her as best I could. She deserved that.

Besides money, I also gathered information. Like a hawk, I kept my eyes on the news, specifically relating to New York. I put some of my less violent and more intellectual skills to work, keeping track of Blackwatch and Gentek. Hacking was still more Dana's thing at that point then it was mine, but I managed.

That's how I found out my initial plans were already falling apart.

Gentek, on orders from higher authorities than Randall, had moved a number of active samples out of Manhattan even before Firebreak was authorised. Peter hadn't known about it. They were still moving resources to other facilities around the country.

What got my attention and set our destination were the contents of one particular shipment, bound for a Gentek lab in Miami, that contained the research notes and samples from lab Three-A in the Gentek building back in Manhattan. That was Alexander's lab, and those were the notes and viral samples he had personally worked on.

Now, I knew for certain that Blackwatch had less advanced strains of Blacklight, prototypes of _me_. I didn't know then what they could do with those, what they _would _do, but I didn't want to give them the chance. As soon as Dana was up to it, we continued south. If I'd been paying more attention rather than going through the frightening scenarios of what those less advanced strains were capable of, I might have known we were being followed.

* * *

**Next Time: Explosions! Fighting! Melodramatic Exposition!**


	2. Round Three

I continue to own nothing. And apparently I don't have any notes to place here right now, so read on.

* * *

**Round Three**

When we got to Miami I intended to buy a house up around Hallandale Beach, fortify it, and set Dana up there for however long it took me to deal with the local Gentek facilities. She talked me out of it, insisting she'd be safer closer to wherever I was.

Regardless of how things ultimately turned out, I shouldn't have listened.

So I got a place further south, on the corner of North West Twenty-Sixth Street and North West Twenty-First Avenue, not far from Juan Pablo Duarte Park. I helped Dana set up her computers and other equipment before working on the house itself.

Of course normally it would have taken a while to actually buy a house, but the right amount of money in the right place can speed things up when necessary.

Covertly gathering the biomass needed to convert the building into a small armored bunker was simple and took less than eight hours, actually converting the building without revealing it's new state as a pseudo-hive was considerably more difficult.

Hiding the chitin armor inside the walls and designing the entire framework so that, in an emergency, it could fully subsume the house and be all but invulnerable to conventional attack was not easy. I almost knocked the whole thing over more than once.

When I thought Dana was as safe as possible we got to work. Finding the publicly known building housing Gentek's local branch was easy, Dana's help finding all the blind spots and personnel files saved me a lot of leg work though.

Most of my actual scouting involved plotting out the patrols and guard posts of Blackwatch's teams. After Manhattan the higher ups of Blackwatch decided to put heavier security in place around Gentek facilities.

We were only in town two days before I found an acceptable disguise and infiltrated the building.

If the new addition to my choir had known that none of the DX-1118 C prototype samples were on site it may have saved me some trouble. Not that that would have changed what was coming.

It took me a couple hours of sneaking around the building, stealing two other faces to get everywhere I needed to to find out what I was after. Ultimately a disappointing waste of time and lives.

On my way to the exit I called Dana, keeping quiet of course.

"No good. None of the samples from Manhattan are here. They're in the city but not this building. I'm going to scout one of the hidden facilities and the-" I was cut off then by an explosion. I never really found out but at the time I guessed it was around five pounds of C4.

I didn't have time to even hang up or tell Dana not to worry before another explosion ripped through the building. I was still on the third floor and the first explosion was two floors down and originated outside. The second and third detonations were on the second floor.

"I'll call back," was all I managed before a wall came down at the other end of the hall. I hung up and slipped the phone away before turning my full attention to the cause of the destruction. Imagine my surprise when the body rising from a crouch turned Alexander Mercer's eyes towards me.

Since I'm being honest here, I have to admit I felt him long before he revealed himself. I just didn't realize that his presence was something external. I mistook the whisper of his thoughts and emotions for background noise from all the other voices in my head.

At the time instinct took over and I charged him, he did the same. We abandoned our respective disguises and met blade to shield and claw to claw. The first few seconds of the fight were an uncoordinated brawl, not worth recounting in detail, then we managed to smash through an outer wall and fall to the ground thirty feet below.

I maneuvered him under me and dove down, driving him into the ground like a meteor before leaping away. He was on his feet again and stepping out of his impact crater before I even landed.

Still almost fifteen feet tall, smiling sadistically at me, if you could call any expression on that face a smile. The Supreme Hunter.

"Forgot about me didn't you? Thought I was dead?" It asked, voice like gravel in a wood chipper.

"I don't forget, but yeah, I guess I thought I wouldn't be seeing you again."

"Do you know how much that hurts, Alex?" It snarled out as it leapt forward. It shifted more mass to it's right arm, expanding it's blade and bringing it down. I blocked it easy enough, I always could change faster than him and my blade was more durable.

"That's three times now _father!_ Three times you've killed me! You said you thought about how I felt before the first time. How about now? How do you think I feel!" It roared, lifting it's blade and smashing it back down twice, punctuating the last two sentences.

"Angry, obviously. But I don't see why I should care." I answered hollowly. Not my most compassionate response, I know. I twisted, brushing it's blade aside and slashing back through it's chest before dashing away again to avoid it's counter.

"I'm not the same as I was before. When you separated me from yourself? I wasn't even really aware. When you killed me in the Core Hive? I was a child lashing out. On the Reagan? I just wanted to survive, and consuming you, rejoining you was the only way I could see. But that's not me anymore-"

Talking while fighting isn't safe for humans, remember that. Things like myself and the Supreme Hunter can chat all we want while performing complicated acrobatics and swinging steel cleaving blades around though. I was evading and counter-attacking through much of the exchange.

"You're a lot more talkative than I remember, I'll give you that." Talkative and melodramatic.

"I'm a different being now, Alex. I don't just survive, I'm reborn. I'm a new life with all the memories of my last. Before all I wanted was to survive, before that I didn't, couldn't, want anything and before that-"

"You were a brainless parasite, a cancer eating me to sustain yourself. What's your point?" I shouted that just before kicking off the wall of Gentek's building and driving a hammerfist into his face with enough force to scrap an M1.

He fell, rolling away from me and getting back to his feet.

"My point is that I'm better than that now, Alex. Smarter. What I want now is the same thing everyone else wants; control, authority."

"Not everyone wants that." Yeah, turns out his third 'rebirth' as he called it was just a delusional megalomaniac.

"You know as well as I do that that's exactly what humans want. All of them without fail fantasize about being on top, being-" I cut him off, smashing a car into his face and bringing both hammerfists down after it.

He tried to keep talking, but around a mouth full of engine block that wasn't easy. He brought his own hammerfist down toward me but I was gone long before it hit. He made short work of tearing the remains of the vehicle apart after that.

I was point blank in his face the moment he got the rest of the car off his head, I hadn't developed it to the same level as Elizabeth but I still had her shockwave trick. The first blast of force knocked him flat, the second kept him there and kept me airborne. Then Blackwatch intervened.

A Javelin tagged me while I was preparing another wave and knocked me out of the air. Manhattan gave me a lot of practice with that sort of thing though, recovering from the blast was simple enough.

I hadn't expected Blackwatch's security units to respond so quickly if things went wrong, but C4 charges blasting chunks out of a major asset tends to get people moving in a hurry.

The Supreme Hunter was on his feet and rushing me, ignoring the incoming missiles and bullets. Three more Javelins were headed for us, two aimed at me I think. He lunged with his blade, I dodged over it and handsprung off his right shoulder.

Timing is easy when the world moves slower in your perception, so I swatted one missile off course and dodged another. The one I dodged was headed for him anyway, he didn't bother to block it or avoid it. I twisted in midair, avoiding a collision with the last missile and reached out, latching several tendrils onto it and spinning around while the Hunter leapt after me.

I released the missile on the third rotation, sending it right into the Supreme Hunter's face followed by an unfocused crimson wave. He landed on his feet, I landed a Bulletdive on his face. The impact drove him into the ground again and I dashed clear before another salvo of missiles from the Blackwatch security squad detonated on the spot.

That wouldn't have stopped me, so I didn't think for a second it would stop him. It did give me about four uninterrupted seconds though, with him down and the Javelin toting soldiers reloading. When he got up I blasted him full force with a shockwave.

Sent him tumbling into the street towards the Blackwatch soldiers, putting him between us and making him the more opportune target for the next salvo.

He rose up from the smoking crater and roared. I saw it coming, practically felt it coming, tendrils writhing over his body and mass redistributing itself throughout his form. Dozens of tendrils, each covered in barbed spines, erupted from him in all directions.

I jumped to the left, avoiding one tendril and dashing through the air to avoid another. Two more midair changes of direction, weaving between the thrashing bands of flesh, and I landed safely in an open area. The Blackwatch team wasn't lucky enough or quick enough to avoid the Devastator.

Weird as it may have seemed had anyone seen it, I smiled at his little display of destructive power. His powers were my powers, I know them inside and out, and what he did then isn't something I would do so casually for one very good reason. Generating the biomass for the attack strains cellular replication, slowing regeneration and taking a bite out of reserve mass.

Basically, he shot himself in the leg.

I knew he wouldn't be able to fight much longer. And I knew that he could survive most anything I could throw at him, even if I reduced him to sludge as I'd done in our first fight he'd regenerate eventually, and I never should have expected decapitation to work in the first place.

At the time, with my limited use of both Greene's unique powers, I wasn't sure I could kill him for good. I figured though that hitting the Supreme Hunter with all the force and energy I could project at once while he was weakened would be my best bet.

While he was recovering from his Devastator I started focusing my own. Didn't have time to finish though.

We'd both heard the gunships approach long before they were in effective combat range, we'd ignored them, I under the assumption that the fight would end before they arrived, he most likely figuring the same. We were wrong. Four AH-64s dropped to just above one-hundred fifty feet and opened fire.

Thirty-two AGM-114 Hellfire missiles rained down towards us. A disproportionate number seemed to be aimed at me specifically thinking back on it. I abandoned my barely prepared attack and pushed two shock waves out between myself and the missiles.

Two missiles detonated on contact with the first wave of kinetic force, their explosions lit up the early morning sky and triggered three more detonations from other missiles. The second wave intercepted four missiles directly, taking out two more as a result.

I shifted to armor and braced for the impact from the remaining missiles, forming a shield and digging my feet into the concrete.

Out of the corner of my eye, figuratively speaking, I saw the Supreme Hunter roar, tearing up a segment of the sidewalk and hurling it towards the gunships. The chunk of pavement was blown apart by the hail of missiles, and the rest found their target. We were both still standing when the smoke started to clear.

The Strike Team pulled back after that and I took the chance to hit the Supreme Hunter again. He was doubled over, between the missiles and the temporary weakness from using the Devastator it didn't surprise me. I took advantage of that, bulking up my right arm and rushing him at near top speed.

He was just straightening up when I drove the augmented Hammerfist into his chest, jumping hard behind it to make sure I hit him hard enough. He shot twenty feet into the air, I stopped at ten, before I twisted to lash a whipfist around one of his legs.

I swung him in an arc to my left, smashing him to the ground at the same moment I landed. Reversing the twist, slamming him into the street to my right, I reeled the whipfist back in and morphed both hands to Hammerfist.

A short jump and I brought both chitin wrecking balls down on the back of his head. I thought that would be the end of it, a quick hop back away from him before preparing a shock wave and energy flare. I didn't get even two seconds free before a volley of rockets screamed down around me.

I stumbled from a few direct hits and snapped my attention to the gunships, that was a mistake. The Supreme Hunter took my lapse in attention as a chance and I barely had a moment to brace before he backhanded me away. I recovered in midair, landing on my feet and sliding a short way down the street.

I caught sight of him moving away from me, giving up the fight and retreating. He smashed through the front of a building and out of sight. I moved to follow him, but of course Blackwatch couldn't just think their actions through for once. Another volley of rockets interrupted me before I made it two steps.

Considering they were Blackwatch and that I was trying to kill a threat to the general well being of the world I didn't really hesitate to strike at them. I remember what a number of pilots felt and thought when they saw me jumping towards them, not fond memories.

I kicked the closest gunship, forcing it to turn left, and caught it by the tail as it rotated around. I repeated the rotation and threw it at one of the others, missed, no surprise given how erratically it flew between the force of the throw and pilot's attempts to regain control. It crashed anyway, and the one I was aiming for over compensated and nearly hit one of the others.

That kept them distracted long enough for me to slip away. In a city with no Infected it wasn't hard to spot the Supreme Hunter trying to blend in with the people hurrying away from the scene. Really it was harder pushing past all the people who were ignoring basic self-preservation instincts and trying to get a closer look at the site of the battle.

I jumped, dashing through the air after him and he bolted. He turned a corner and sped up, I swung around the side of the building and continued pursuit. I had to twist around in midair again and drop to the ground, catching a woman he'd thrown at me. She looked shaken but I didn't really bother to do more than set her down before jumping again.

"You know how this ends! You can't run forever!" I shouted after him, gliding around the next corner he turned and dashing closer.

He didn't shout back, just picked up a car and threw it at me.

I caught it easy enough, could have thrown it back but I'm not really fond of random murder. I crushed the front end of another car landing on it and set the car I'd caught down on it's side. I was getting annoyed at that point and leapt after him again.

He couldn't outrun me, not normally, and it was clear he knew that. I expected him to keep throwing things, waiting for the Strike Team to catch up again to distract me. He grabbed a man by the throat and I prepared to catch him in flight or avoid the corpse, depending on how he threw the human.

Instead of throwing his captive like I expected, the Hunter stabbed him, dropping him seconds later and smiling at me before dashing away again. It's not really a visible spectrum, but that's how I perceive the infection. So I 'saw' it as the virus spread from the gash in the man's stomach.

The infection spread fast, faster than Redlight, even if it was still slower than my own conversion rate. People were crowding around, some taking pictures, some offering assistance and others just watching. I heard people calling the police, hospitals and friends.

"Move! Get away from him!" I shouted, roared really. Almost as if reacting to my voice the man lurched to his feet, snarling and foaming at the mouth.

He was mutating visibly in seconds. Muscle tore through flesh, shafts of bone split their way out of his body. Blood flowed from open wounds as the man's face twisted, his lower jaw disconnecting from the rest of his skull and splitting in two while his teeth elongated and sharpened. Half his skull split the skin, horn-like growths jutting in random directions.

His left arm swelled up, a crude imitation of one of my own weapons with deformed fingers and bone shards sprouting from it in no particular order.

People started running and screaming the moment the transformation began. I barreled through the crowd and tackled the Aberration to the ground. It was short sighted, actually, to let myself be distracted like that. I should have left it alone and followed the Supreme Hunter, finished it off for good as soon as possible, it would have saved a lot of trouble later.

* * *

**NOTES!**

Yep. Supreme Hunter lives and is back yet again. And he's a bit of a pretentious dick now.

In case anyone was wondering, if the fight had happened in game, the Hunter would have been at about half health when it decided to retreat. I'll try to explain that and other things in-story as I go.

**Powers:** When Alex gains or notably improves or alters a power I will note it at the end of the chapter.

**Power Subset Unlocked!**

**Ranged**

**Crimson Shockwave:** Weapon Form: None. Effect: Projects pulses of kinetic force. Devastator: Full Charge (Technically Not Named). Mechanics: Kinetic energy stored over time up to a certain limit. Use of power drains stored energy. Energy is replenished through impacts and movement, recharging it gradually. Use of Hammerfists rapidly replenishes stored kinetic energy.

(Functionally Identical to the Push and Repulse powers in Force Unleashed. Visible effect is, of course, dark red instead of light blue though.)

**Bio-Energy Projection:** Weapon Form: None Yet. Effect: Focuses and projects bio-energy at range. Devastator: N/A. Mechanics: Bio-energy is produced and stored overtime at a set rate up to a certain limit. Recharge rate is affected by Alex consuming things in the same manner as his regeneration is. Current use is identical to Elizabeth's homing attacks.


	3. The Time For War

I own Nothing.

When reading this segment please remember that the Runner's have heavily skewed perspectives and that what they see and how they understand things is somewhat warped. Like Little Sisters in Bioshock 2, kinda.

* * *

**The Time For War**

She had slept, drifting through dreams for years. When their home was destroyed, when _they_ tried to destroy the family, to destroy Hope, she had wished to fight back. She and the others had raged and lashed out, wanting nothing more than to shatter those who had harmed them.

But Elizabeth, the strongest of them, the heart and will of the whole had held them back.

"_Wait,"_ she had said. "_Now is not the time."_

They were captured, locked away and _hurt!_ But Mother still said to wait. Still Elizabeth, who had lost more than any of them, her son taken from her at birth and separated from the family, still she said it was not time.

Keiko though, the youngest of them, she did not listen. She could never stand the dark or small places, their prisons were both. For a time they were kept sedated, but they adapted. They were awake more often for longer periods. Eventually it was too much for her.

She panicked, lashed out and fought. Elizabeth called out to her, but distance weakened her voice and Keiko's panic drowned it out. She broke her cage, and her captors, and fled.

Madison had wished to go to her, to shatter her own bonds and rush to her sister's side, the others felt the same. Elizabeth forbade them and called for Keiko to stop, to wait and hide. She did not. She tried to create another family, to add to the whole. And then she died.

Even so far away she had felt her sister die. She had screamed and cried, joined over the distance by the others. Elizabeth mourned with them but still held them back, still forbid them from seeking revenge. She thought of the whole, the family and what was best for all of them, and so they listened.

She, Madison, was always quick to anger, she knew and acknowledged that. Elizabeth had always been her best friend, and had always kept her temper from getting the best of her. Even with hundreds of miles between them Mother was still protecting her from herself.

After Keiko's death Madison slept, dreaming fitfully and waiting for Elizabeth to call them.

Little more than two months ago she felt a child born into the world; wild, powerful and uncontrollable. He had been lost and confused, but she had had hope because he was so close to Elizabeth. She had been certain that Mother would find him, teach him and bring him into the family.

She felt their meeting, she felt them come to conflict. She felt the family grow as Elizabeth brought more into the whole. She had not understood the child's resistance, his refusal to join them. She did not understand why, even as Elizabeth brought them together, their new brothers and sisters clung to their despair and physical suffering.

Madison had decided that they would understand in time and that, for now, that they were part of the whole was enough.

She felt it when Mother reached out to the child, bringing one precious to him into the family to show him they would accept him and that he would not be alone. She felt him lash out, hurt Elizabeth. She felt the monstrosity, the _Abomination_, take it's first breaths.

Still Mother thought only of all being one, together and whole. A family.

Then she screamed while Elizabeth died. The family, the whole vanished. Hope died with Mother and Madison fell into depressed, horrified silence.

Now she stirred. She had felt them drawing nearer. The child and monster. She heard the hollow echo of her family with the child, the dead voices of thousands and the whisper of her forever lost friend. The two fought, aiming to destroy one another utterly. She felt the monster create another like itself and she cried out in her mind at the unforgivable horror of such a thing.

The monster could never be whole, never be of a family, and now it stole that chance from others. This she would not accept. No more. Madison opened her eyes to the dim ceiling above her.

"_The Time For Waiting Is Long Past,"_ Madison said, her own voice hollow in her ears, without the unity of the whole. "_Now Is The Time For War."_

Her essence, what _they_ called a virus, spread at her will. Countless organisms, too small for human sight, fell under her sway. At her will they changed and divided, spreading and growing as she directed. Under her command the flesh took shape, thousands of tendrils no thicker than strands of hair worked to dissolve her restraints.

In moments she was free. She stood from the table, pausing only long enough for her body to heal itself after lying motionless for so long. Vents opened along the edges of the floor, pale red mist that burned her skin and lungs flowed into the room, reminding her of a time when she had not listened to Elizabeth's warnings about poison ivy.

She ignored it, focusing all the force she could gather and releasing it. The pulse expanded around her, shattering the thick, clear walls of her cell and blowing the pale mist away. Calmly she paced to the door, the single exit of the room, she knew it to be locked. It wouldn't stop her, neither would the men she felt gathering beyond the door.

Madison, heedless of the small pain it caused her, dug her fingers into the metal of the door and pulled. In moments she ripped the door free of it's frame with a scream of metal tearing like cloth. Gunfire, a sound she had not heard in years, echoed from the hall beyond. She held the door as a shield, all but instantly the soldiers halted, knowing they were wasting their bullets.

She released the door and pushed. The thick steel plate, carried by a devastating wave of force flew through the opening and down the hall. Madison did not count the dead. She walked into the hall, even as the burning mist began to again fill the room that had so long been her prison.

Not all were dead, some had escaped the door's flight, others were only wounded. She thrust a hand towards those who were already rising to their feet, weapons in hand. They were thrown with bone shattering force against the wall, slumping back to the floor unmoving.

One man, still breathing, pushed himself to a sitting position. He wasn't armed though, his rifle lost she guessed when the the door clipped him. The state of his left arm spoke to severe blunt force damage. He couldn't seem to draw his sidearm, though she could see he was trying desperately.

Madison knelt beside him, taking his knife and pistol and tossing them away. She quickly but gently removed his mask, meeting his panicked brown eyes with her sad and angry green.

"_You don't have to be afraid anymore. I will take care of you."_ She leaned forward, pressing her mouth over his. Her essence flowed into him, but she held it back, slowing it's progress.

Elizabeth had not cared what became of the bodies, they were inconsequential for the family, but for Madison's mission they needed to be more.

She pulled away and stood, walking down the hall. Her essence spread from her hands, trailing through the air as it fell and giving direction and purpose to the organisms it found there. Dark red flesh pulsed and slithered along the floor, up the walls and across the ceiling. The dead were broken down, bodies recycled to nourish the hive and the defenders that would be born from it.

Not far above she felt remnants of Elizabeth, the blood of her guardians. She smiled sadly at that, but took strength in the knowledge that, even in death, Mother would be there to protect her.

Behind her her family began, her army grew. Before her her enemies gathered, only to be brushed aside. She would do as Elizabeth had wished, she would join all together as one family, to throw away hate, suffering and ignorance. But where Elizabeth had fought in defense of the family, she would hunt down all who would deny them.

* * *

**Notes!**

**Madison:** Effectively the countdown timer of this story, since things will only get worse as long as she's alive. Heavily traumatized by the events at Hope and the following years she spent under Gentek's supervision, she is dead set on wiping them and Blackwatch out. She is angry at Alex for killing Elizabeth and hates the Supreme Hunter.

Presently Madison is capable of projecting shock waves slightly stronger than those Alex was throwing at the Supreme Hunter. She has no specific Genetic Templates for her Hive to start with, though the "Guardians" blood she is on her way to pick up at the end there will give her Hydras and Hunters to work with.

**Keiko:** The youngest and weakest Runner from Hope. Killed in Two Bluff by Robert Cross. She was a Japanese girl living in Hope before everything went downhill. She was sixteen at the time of the Outbreak.

**Aberrations:** Forgot to note them before. Things infected by the Supreme Hunter. Because it can only form damaged and unstable genetic structures anything infected by it is itself damaged and unstable. Aberration's bodies are one giant mess of half finished mutations and genetic defects, marking them visibly against the more stable Hive Infected. Torn skin and freakishly bloated muscle structures along with protruding bones and asymmetrical limbs are features shared to some degree by all Aberrations.


	4. Begin Again

I do not own Prototype.

The game hasn't quite started just yet, everyone's still getting their pieces on the board. Madison isn't a very patient woman though, so expect things to take off soon.

* * *

**Begin Again**

Colonel Douglas Rooks considered himself to be a fairly patient man. He rarely lost his composure and could deal with most things without showing any signs of stress. One thing he had very little patience for, however, was bureaucracy. All too often he found that things that needed to be done quickly were delayed or outright made impossible by miles of red tape and the endless, pointless jockeying for position politicians seemed to him to spend nearly all their time on.

For that reason he was normally privately glad for most any event or situation that cut through a bit of the hassle and let him do his job most effectively and efficiently. Such occurrences were rare but when they happened he appreciated and enjoyed them while they lasted. This was not the case the morning Riley entered his office and alerted him to a situation at the Gentek building in Miami.

His brigade, stationed in an underground Blackwatch facility, was their closest force so it fell within his jurisdiction. Were it not for the nature of the situation he would have considered it to be one of his preferred sort of days. However, a decrease in bureaucracy is hardly worth a visit by the combined form of the Four Horsemen.

"Colonel," Riley had said, snapping a quick salute. Rooks knew from his old friend's tone, expression and stance that he wasn't going to like what he was about to hear. "A situation was reported by guard teams stationed in Miami. Gentek's public branch building was attacked, presently unknown explosives were detonated outside and inside the building."

Rooks knew that wasn't what had his second in command agitated, even if the building hadn't been little more than a glorified PR stunt and did contain any of Gentek's bio weapons research Riley wouldn't have been concerned. Breaches had happened before in other places, easily dealt with.

Establish the line. Lock down the area. Burn everything.

"The team that responded first reported two organisms, one humanoid and one heavily mutated, fighting outside the building not long after the initial explosions. A Strike Team was called in."

Rooks cleared his schedule, straightened his desk, and sent a pre-recorded message to his wife.

"The situation began at seven-twenty-three a.m. The Strike Team arrived at seven-twenty-six a.m. Contact with both targets was lost at seven-twenty-seven a.m. One gunship was lost."

Douglas was finishing pulling his body armor on over his uniform when Riley said the words that turned his blood to ice and well explained the lieutenant's agitation.

"Intelligence reviewed footage from the Strike Team and from on site security. Both organisms are pre-existing, documented subjects last sighted in New York on the U.S.S Reagan. ZEUS is confirmed alive and in Miami, sir."

Rooks looked at his clock. Seven-forty-three, almost twenty minutes. He opened a panel and flipped a switch, the alert sounded throughout the base and emergency lights lit up in red.

"Command Room." He said to Riley as he moved to the door.

"Sir, there's more." Riley said, having not truly finished his report. "Almost immediately after contact with ZEUS was lost an alarm tripped in Gentek's main lab complex in Miami Beach. Containment breach by Subject Three."

One of the Hope Runners. A groan escaped Rooks before he could stifle it.

"The in city garrison sent in a team to assist but contact was lost with them not long after they entered the complex and all communication from the facility's staff was lost before that. They've sealed the exits and secured the area. They've requested direct reinforcements as soon as possible."

ZEUS and a Runner loose in Miami. He'd read the reports he had clearance for, all them at least twice. He knew what ZEUS was capable of. He'd been of the opinion that all subjects from Hope should be terminated even before MOTHER had ripped Manhattan apart.

"One of them wouldn't have been bad enough?" He muttered, shaking his head. "Alright, let's move, the situation isn't going to resolve itself."

**+++Alex+++**

I killed the mutant quickly, the Aberration the Supreme Hunter created, not even a minute lost on it. It was far from the toughest thing I'd ever fought. But that half minute of time was enough for the Supreme Hunter to escape. I could have tracked him down again if I really tried, probably, but I didn't have time.

I was worried about Dana, I couldn't call her since my phone got crushed during the fight. If the Hunter knew where she was I thought he might go after her and my confidence in my armored additions to the house didn't hold up against my concern for her.

Once something starts rolling down a steep incline it becomes very difficult to stop, that is to say when things go bad it is very easy for them to get worse fast. I had barely left the street where the Aberration died when I felt something familiar, not to me though, to Elizabeth.

"Madison?" I whispered to myself, recalling moments from my mother's life. Madison, her best friend, so close as to be sisters. One of the other Runners from Hope, the third one captured.

I ran faster, as fast as humanly possible, keeping up my disguise and racing back to Dana. All the while I felt Madison growing stronger as more minds, more lives were subsumed by her will. It stopped before I reached the safe house, she stopped. I knew what was happening, even if I could only just barely touch her mind, she was just letting her first victims, her first 'children' finish growing.

There was going to be an outbreak, and I had no doubt it would be worse than Manhattan by far.

**+++Blackwatch: Day One. 7:53 A.M+++**

"Tactical Map. Miami." Rooks barked out. The command staff obeyed instantly, bringing up the holographic tabletop map and generating a three-dimensional replica of the city. "Mark Incident A-One location."

A red dot appeared on the map, marking the Gentek branch building.

"Designate area as restricted. Riley?"

"Garrison forces have already secured the area, sir." The lieutenant responded.

"Have them search the facility and process all survivors. Bloodtox or viral detectors on site?"

"No, none sir."

Rooks frowned but didn't ask for an explanation. "Send the first and second platoons to support the garrison and deliver the necessary supplies."

"Yes sir." Riley said, nodding and stepping back to issue the commands.

"Tactical. Mark Incident A-Two."

A red light illuminated an unassuming six story apartment building on Alton Road and Fourteenth Street in the Miami Beach area.

"Containment?" Rooks asked.

"So far no reported breaches out of the complex, sir." One of the operators responded. "All available garrison units are moving to reinforce the position."

Rooks nodded, half relieved. "Mark Gentek facilities not compromised. Designate these as Blue Zones. Set perimeter to twenty meters."

Three blue dots outlined in red marked the remaining Gentek labs, spreading out to mark the restricted zones. Rooks traced a line inland from the mouth of the Miami River, North West until the Twenty-Seventh Avenue bridge. From there he traced it up north to Fifty-Fourth Street and turned it back east to the edge of Biscayne Bay.

All of Miami Beach he marked red, setting defense lines on both sides of every bridge that could link it directly or indirectly to the mainland.

"We hem Zeus in and contain him. I want Bloodtox and Viral Detectors along the line and containment walls double layered, sixty to one hundred feet from wall to wall." Rooks said, marking breach points along the line for gates. "No openings between the detectors, overlap their coverage areas as much as possible."

That Zeus may well have already left the zone he outlined did not escape him, but his gut said the walking apocalypse was in the city for a reason and wouldn't be leaving on a whim.

"Begin evacuation of all areas outside the quarantine line." Rooks ordered, before hitting a switch to PA system. "Attention all personnel, we are moving out. Grab your equipment and link up with your platoons and leaders. I am designating Miami International Airport as Red Crown Command."

He continued outlining defensive measures and positioning of equipment and squads for the rest of the morning, only breaking to request all the reinforcements the situation and his reputation could pull in before moving out with the rest of the brigade.

**+++Alex+++**

I almost didn't bother to stop as I approached the house, I almost sped up to smash right through the door as soon as the inner armor shell was out of the way. But I restrained myself and skidded to a stop, putting shallow trenches in the cement before opening the door, nearly wrenching it off it's hinges.

"Dana!" I half shouted as I closed the door behind me, careful not to damage it further.

"What? What's wrong?" Dana asked, I heard her chair clatter to the floor as she rushed to the front entryway. "God, seriously, what happened?" She half demanded, having tried to call me not long after I hung up on her before.

"A lot." I said, hugging her. Neither of us was really all that comfortable with such close contact at that point, lingering fear in her case and a desire not to frighten her in mine, but I didn't care to much just then irrational as it was. I let her go and stepped back, leaning against the wall and sighing.

"Gonna elaborate on that or is 'A lot' all I get to know?" She asked, straightening her jacket and shirt before crossing her arms and quirking an eyebrow.

"The Supreme Hunter's alive, it followed us here." I said, slipping my hands into my jacket pockets. I'd told her about it after Manhattan, when I was confessing all my other mistakes and crimes, so she had context for why it was a problem.

"That thing's here?" She asked, rhetorically. "You fought it again, right? Are you okay?"

"Yes. It got away though." I answered. "I probably couldn't have finished it off anyway, but I still can't believe I let it run."

"You cut it's head off back on the Reagan, you said." Dana noted, sitting down on a box. "If that didn't kill it…"

"The bomb didn't kill me," I said, filling the silence after she trailed off. "But it came close, if I hadn't gotten as far away as I did before it went off I wouldn't have survived. We aren't invincible."

I held up my right arm, focusing on the energy I'd learned to manipulate after assimilating Elizabeth. The surface of my arm took on a wavering, bright green glow from the elbow down, almost like rippling reflections of light off water. When I spread my fingers apart the energy arced between them, briefly forming nebulous semi-spheres over my palm every other second.

"If I could hurt it badly enough, do enough damage to cripple it like I did the first time and then hit it with all of this and Elizabeth's shockwave at the same time I think that might kill it for good." I said, letting the energy I'd drawn to the surface bleed away harmlessly.

Dana stared at me for a second, not bothered by the display with the energy, she'd seen that before.

"Alright," She said, standing up and brushing imaginary dust off her lap. "So what's the real problem?"

She knew me well enough to figure there was more.

"Come on, if you've got a plan to kill huge, deformed and hideous then I know something else must have happened to qualify as "A lot" and get you to race back here." She said, tilting her head and giving me a look she generally reserved for people who were trying to short change her at grocery stores.

"Madison." I said. "A woman from Hope, like Elizabeth. She's a Runner, the third strongest according to Elizabeth's memory of things." Dana's eyes widened at that and she rubbed her forehead.

"Fuck-God." She groaned and sat back on her box, heavily.

"She's East of here, even further than the Gentek building. Miami Beach, probably." I said, stepping away from the wall. "She broke out of her cell while I was dealing with a thing the Supreme Hunter made to stall me. She's building a Hive over there now, I can feel her. And I think she can feel us, me for sure."

"Miami Beach…" Dana murmured, frowning. "Blackwatch is already in the area, right?"

I knew it was rhetorical but I answered anyway.

"They had a Strike Team on us just a couple minutes after the Hunter showed itself."

"Then they've gotta know this Madison chick broke out, right? Miami Beach should be easy to evacuate and quarantine if they move fast."

"Should be." I echoed. "But Madison's not Elizabeth. She's angry, she's looking for a fight and that's what she'll prepare for. Whatever Blackwatch thinks they know, they aren't ready for this anymore than they were ready for Manhattan."

"So what do _we_ do?" Dana asked. "You can stop her, right?"

"Probably." I answered. "If she's not as strong as Elizabeth she shouldn't be hard to deal with if I can get to her. Problem is getting to her _fast enough_, the longer she's active the more advanced her Hive will get. With Blackwatch and the Supreme Hunter between me and her, this isn't going to be easy."

"What are you waiting for then?" Dana demanded, bolting back to her feet and setting her fists on her hips. "Go take her out before they make things any harder."

"Dana, the Hunter followed us here. It probably knows about this house and even if it doesn't it can find it easy just by looking for me." I said, struggling with the situation. "If I leave-"

"I'll be fine, Alex." She said, putting a hand on my shoulder, we both flinched a little. "You said this place is nearly as tough as one of Elizabeth's armored Hives. Even you couldn't break those without Blackwatch's thermobaric missiles. Just go deal with Madison and I'll see what I can find from here. Besides, you'll know right away if someone does attack here won't you?"

"Yes." I answered. "But knowing that you're in immediate danger won't make me feel any better."

"No," She said, smirking at me. "But as long as you're within, like, ten miles of here the bunker only has to hold for what, three minutes before you'll be back to deal with it?"

"Two, if nothing were in my way and I moved full speed the whole time in a straight line. Three to four depending on what's between me and here if I don't have to deal with Strike Teams. Five to six if Blackwatch throws any real force at me. And that's assuming I stay within ten miles."

"Alex!" She snapped. "Stop doing that. You know what I mean. We can't accomplish anything if you're always busy protecting me. Besides, I'm not helpless anymore, remember? Go."

Her expression as she said that was grim, bringing up what Elizabeth had done to her bothered us both, possibly her more than me. I opened my mouth and closed it twice, trying to argue, or comfort her. I gave up, not knowing what to say and just nodded.

"I'll scout things out, if I can get into the facility I'll take a shot but be ready for things to get complicated." I said, reluctantly. "Stay away from the outer walls, just in case."

I stepped back outside a minute later and closed the door behind me while the hive's internal carapace shifted back over the inner side of the door. I didn't leave right away though, I could have but given the lack of exceptionally tall or large buildings I could covertly hide behind or in in Miami I held back. I didn't want to limit my movement the way I had on my run back after killing the Aberration.

_I need to move fast but without being seen._ I thought to myself. I held up my right arm again, shifting the surface colors rapidly, the effect playing over my entire body. I found the right patterns quick enough, blending in with the wall to my right, but that made me stand out from just about any other direction. _Not good enough._

Another twenty seconds of fiddling with the shifting colors gave me the result I wanted. A chameleon-like ability, colors shifting to match whatever was behind me no matter what angle I was seen from. Far from perfect but as long as I kept moving and stayed in the air or otherwise at a distance from people it would be adequate.

"Have to be ready for the Hunter next time." I muttered, warping my genetic structure and watching my arm take on a semi-gelatinous form before it settled. "Adapt and evolve, start slow. Right."

I wasn't happy about it, but I couldn't just make a perfect weapon with no basis for it. I needed a better way to use the energy if I was going to finish the Supreme Hunter off with it, charging it up like Elizabeth did took too long and didn't provide the concentration I expect to need.

"Primitive then. Simple." I mumbled and shifted my arm again. When it settled my fingers were segmented armor claws, not much longer than normal. The back of my arm sported a raised section with curved segments sweeping back towards my elbow.

The raised portion terminated just above my wrist with a silver spike, made of four curved single-edged blades meeting at their points, protruding from it. A broad head tipped bolt.

A crossbow is simple mechanism, really, and my arm hardly needed to bulk up to accommodate the internal parts that would produce and load the bolts along with the biological mechanisms that would allow it reasonably high power and range. No use against heavily armored vehicles directly but I had other options if I needed to fight tanks.

"It's a start." I said, morphing my arm back to normal and switching on my new Chameleon Skin. I ran to the end of the sidewalk and jumped.

**+++Sabrina Galloway 8:00 A.M+++**

Sabrina pulled up to the curb and stopped, staring down the street at the barricades Blackwatch was erecting around _her_ building.

"If Anton hadn't called me," She mused aloud to herself. "I would have been there. Did he know? No, we didn't even know Mercer was alive, there was no way for anyone to predict this. He couldn't have known."

The conclusion didn't improve her mood.

"So blind luck." She muttered, grimacing at the thought of what might have happened had she arrived to work early as she'd intended that morning. "Unacceptable."

Leaning back in her seat and sighing, Sabrina mused over the situation.

"Mercer's here, and something else besides. Blackwatch is going to be swarming the city by noon, security increases obviously." She groaned slightly at the dull aches in her bones and tingling of her skin. "Damn it! They couldn't wait another month?"

_I can't leave, not yet. _She thought.

She started her car again and headed home.

* * *

**Notes!**

**New Power Subset Unlocked!: Stealth**

**New Powers Unlocked!: Stealth/Ranged  
**

**Ballista: **Silent ranged weapon. Fires organic bolts with expandable broad head tips. Minor Biomass Drain Per Bolt. Bolts can be recovered after use, otherwise they break down and dissolve leaving no viable genetic material.

**Chameleon Skin:** Stealth adaptation. Alters surface colors to blend into environment. Less effective at close proximity to observers.


End file.
